Tuesday, May 5, 2020

4 Tips To Help You Send More Effective Networking Emails

Whether you’re launching a virtual job search or hoping to deepen
your professional relationships while working from home, using email to
network brings with it several unique challenges and opportunities.

Email is a productivity tool that is primarily used to quickly
exchange information. It lacks many of the essential elements that help
you make a stronger connection in person (or on video), such as allowing
eye contact, body language or the ability to share a laugh together.
Unlike a live conversation, you can’t predict when you will receive a
response from your emails which further stifles the potential for the
kind of back and forth exchange that leads to an authentic dialogue.

Despite these challenges, neglecting to network through email would
be a big mistake. When skillfully crafted, emails can be just as
effective of a networking tool as in-person meetings, if not more,
because the disadvantages of email can be overcome or outweighed by the
efficiency of the process. With email, you don’t have to find a
compatible time slot for both parties to connect. Even when you invest
the effort into writing your very best message, email still takes a lot
less time than an in-person meeting that you would have traveled to.

If you want to quickly grow and deepen your network while social
distancing, learning how to write interesting and thoughtful emails is
an essential skill. These four tips will help you make a memorable
impression.

1. Set the tone early

In email, you can’t rely on your or another person’s interpersonal
cues to drive the emotional tone of your interaction. Instead, you’ll
have to create the feeling you want to convey using words alone, which
is why the first few sentences of your email are so important. The
opening lines of your email will disproportionally impact the tone of
the entire exchange.

Often, the best way to begin a networking email is with a reference
to your last meeting, a shared memory or a comment about the reason they
came to your mind today. However you choose to start, make sure it
reinforces the feeling you want to express. If you select a funny story,
it will establish a light and humorous tone. If you select wording that
is heartwarming, you will likely have a deeper, more sentimental
dialogue. Either way, decide what feeling you’re going for at the very
beginning and continue to weave it throughout.

This point about tone is more important than ever to consider, since
today’s news headlines might seem like the most appropriate place to
begin. But remember that if you start out by talking about how bad
things are in the world it will add a heaviness to the exchange that you
may not have intended. In some cases, the news may still be the most
fitting place to start but make sure you are making a conscious decision
about how you want the rest of your message to land.

2. Keep it short and personal

If there is only one thing you take away from these tips, let it be this: never (ever) copy and paste in a networking email.

No matter how much you think it will go unnoticed if you add one
unique line in at the beginning or the end of the email, this simply
isn’t true. Rarely can you send the same message to multiple people
without assuming a more general tone that is detectable. Copy and paste
emails must be generic to appeal to a broad audience, but that is the
opposite of what you want your networking emails to be. Email networking
only works when the exchange is authentic and affirms the relationship.

Instead, focus on making your emails short, warm and ultra-specific.
Before pressing send, read your message one final time and consider if
it would still be appropriate if you sent it to someone else. If so,
it’s not as strong as it could be. Try to make multiple references to
things that only apply to your recipient—comments about their family,
pets, hobbies, and personal and professional aspirations are always
great touch points to bring up.

This tip is still relevant to messages to recruiters and those
connections you don’t know very well yet. It is certainly harder to
personalize your emails when you know little about someone, but there is
often enough on LinkedIn or the company website to help you get
started. You may know less about them, but that should help you keep
your messages sharp and concise. Don’t write long emails filled with
details about you to fill the space. Keep the focus on your recipient,
especially in the first exchange, and let the connection build
naturally.